The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul says “Our Bodies belong to the Lord Jesus Christ” Part 3

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. KJV

Paul gives the Corinthian believers and us the remedy or the solution for being victorious over sexual sin and it is to “flee” from it. This English word flee is translated by the Greek word pheugo which is a primary verb that means to literally run away from the person or persons that are being used by satan to temp you to commit sexual immorality; by implication or metaphorically it means to shun or avoid by flight something abhorrent (sexual immorality). We find the clearest picture of this command of God being obeyed by Joseph as documented for us by Moses with these words detailing Joseph’s encounters with his master’s wife, “It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?’ As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her. Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household was there inside. She caught him by his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me!’ And he left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside” (Genesis 39:7-12).

We learned from the last study that our bodies are “joined” to our Lord Jesus Christ through God the Holy Spirit dwelling or living “in us” and He will never lead us into temptation or give the OK for any of us “sealed by Him” to indulge our bodies in the fleshly sins of sexual immorality of any sort. Paul declares this sin of sexual immorality as sinning (not against just God and other people, for all sin is against God) recklessly against our own persons or inflicting wounds upon our own souls and bodies, as it is written so plainly, forcefully, and convincingly by this Proverb, “But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away” (Proverbs 6:32-33). Paul now once again asks the question to the Corinthian believers and to us that we should know the answer to, but again Paul asks it in such a tone that appears to rebuke their ignorance of the reality. Paul going all the way back beginning in chapter 3 of this epistle or letter asks his first question to these Corinthian believers and to us challenging the sincerity, surety, or seriousness of theirs and our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and it is a series of eight (8) “Do you not know” questions between chapter 3 and ending in this chapter 6 with this final question, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).

The place where He who said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3) dwells now is not in temples made of brick and mortar or wood or steel or any other building material, but the God of the Universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of All Power and Might now resides or lives in vessels of clay formed by Him from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7) and surely that should distinguish the Corinthian believers and us (in our sexual conduct and behavior) from those in the world still void of Him because they cannot receive Him (John 14:17). God the Father through God the Son and by the Power of God the Holy Spirit bought or purchased or redeemed us from the bondage and enslavement to all sin and that includes sexual sin that we may now walk and live in newness of life free from sexual immorality and the spiritual, emotional, and physical harm it wreaks, brings about, or works out in the lives of everyone who steps into the indulgence of sexual immorality.

Paul in speaking to the brethren in Ephesus when he departed from them knowing it would be the last time he would see them on the earth sensing his eminent death approaching said, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28) and the Apostle John wrote these words speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, “John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood--and He has made us to be a kings and priests to His God and Father--to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:4-6). Because we have been bought or purchased with such a “high price” to God but received by us as a free gift, we must be eager and zealous for good works (Titus 2:14) to be daily manifested in our lives and to present our bodies to our Heavenly Father as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to Him which is our reasonable service (Romans 12:1), for what other way does sincere and genuine love and gratitude show itself other than in this manner.

“This sin is in a peculiar manner styled uncleanness, pollution, because no sin has so much external turpitude in it, especially in a Christian. He sins against his own body; he defiles it, he degrades it, making it one with the body of that vile creature with whom he sins. He casts vile reproach on what the Redeemer has dignifies to the last degree by taking it into union with himself. Note, We should not make our present vile bodies more vile by sinning against them.” Matthew Henry

“I belong to my Lord, Master, and Savior Jesus Christ not merely by the fruit of my lips but more importantly by the fruit of my life daily being worked in by Him to will and to do according to His good pleasure and He has commanded me and all of His true children this, ‘For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality’ (1 Thessalonians 4:3), what dare say I with any other words that can add anything of eternal value to those words from my Lord Jesus Christ.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…